Tag: Frankie Edgar

(Wait, the same people who designed this travesty are capable of making this? AIN’T. BUYING. IT.)

Regardless of how we all felt when rumors first started swirling that the UFC would be booking an immediate rematch between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz for UFC 200, the one thing we could all agree is that we WOULD TOTALLY WATCH THAT SH*T AGAIN. Whether the fight was contested at welterweight, lightweight, Franklinweight, or Moneyweight, there wasn’t a red-blooded MMA fan alive that wouldn’t fork over sixty bucks or the password to the illegal streaming website with which they watch all pay-per-views to see this rematch.

As such, the UFC announced this morning that a welterweight rematch between McGregor vs. Diaz II would in fact be headlining UFC 200. But that’s not all, not by a long shot…

It’s the most heated rivalry in the heavyweight division today, and on Saturday, Dec. 19, Junior Dos Santos and Alistair Overeem settle the score in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night at Amway Center in Orlando, Florida.

In the FOX-televised card’s main event, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone challenges for a UFC title for the first time when he battles lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos in a highly-anticipated rematch.

There’s good news for you: There exists legitimate (and, most importantly, LEGAL) footage of the fight’s best parts.

Edgar beat Swanson to the punch throughout their five-round affair last night. He also beat him to the takedown, too, dragging Swanson to the mat and smashing him with ground and pound (as much as a 145-pound man can smash someone, at least). In the fifth round, Edgar managed to submit Swanson via rear naked choke with only four seconds remaining. This was arguably Edgar’s finest performance to date — a fight so one-sided the word “fight” really isn’t appropriate. Use “ass-kicking” or, if you’re a language-sensitive baby, “shellacking” instead.

The UFC Fight Night 57 main card kicks off on FOX Sports 1 at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT, and our old friend Matt Kaplan will be stickin’ round-by-round results after the jump. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and shoot us your own thoughts in the comments section or on twitter @cagepotatomma. Thanks for being here.

Edgar has won his last two 145-pound appearances, most recently beating BJ Penn into retirement at the TUF 19 Finale in July. Swanson has won a solid six in a row, earning Fight of the Night bonuses for his last two wins against Dennis Siver and Jeremy Stevens.

* Lukewarm take: Frankie Edgar’s 2-1 record at featherweight shouldn’t put him close to the top five. I know that he was a former lightweight champ, and we all love Frankie, but his #3 ranking is inflated as hell. Dennis Bermudez is riding the longest win streak in UFC featherweight history and he’s all the way down at #7. What’s up with that, approved members of the UFC ranking body? And don’t give me any bullshit about “strength of schedule”: Edgar outpointed Charles Oliveira (okay) and smashed a totally depleted BJ Penn, and he’s #3? PUPPYPOOPING.JPG.

(So *that’s* what Amir’s been up to these past few years? That poor, poor man…)

You might not know this, but the UFC needs to book a fight approximately every 3.5 seconds in order to pull off hosting as many cards as it does these days. And with fighters going down to injury every 5-6 seconds, the UFC is all but forced to inflate its already bloated roster (or keep somefighters around way, way too long) with less than experienced fighters to make up the difference. Hence, Royston Wee.

In the past 12 hours, a half dozen or so fights have been booked for just these reasons. Most of them promise to be entertaining affairs. Some of them, not so much. Hence, gifs. Let’s get started.

Although not officially confirmed, it looks like we will finally see “The Korean Zombie” return to the octagon for the first time since being broken to pieces in his four round smash-up with Jose Aldo at UFC 163. According to reports, Jung will face TUF 14 alum and Swedish native Akira Corassani at Fight Night 53 on October 4th.

Corassani has also had a rough go of things lately — back in November, he scored a victory via DQ against Maximo Blanco at the TUF 18 Finale when a blitzkrieg of illegal knees rendered him unable to continue. He was then legally smashed up by Dustin Poirier in the second round of a back-and-forth, “Fight of the Night”-earning effort at the TUF Nations Finale. At the very minimum, someone is going to have something broken in this fight, which makes this ranking obvious:

Following his utterly dominant win over BJ Penn in their completely pointless trilogy fight at the TUF 19 Finalelast weekend, Frankie Edgar did not sound like a man who had just defeated a legend of the game for the third straight time. He was happy to have another win under his belt, sure, but in his post-fight speech with Jon Anik, he sounded withdrawn, disappointed. Guilty even. He sounded like a man who had just committed a mercy killing, and perhaps rightfully so.

“I almost feel bad about it,” said Edgar.

At the post-fight press conference that evening, Edgar was similarly short of words. Penn, Edgar’s quote unquote “greatest rival” and a man who made him a champion and a bonafide star in defeat, broke down in tears while answering questions about his legacy, the very legacy that Edgar had officially brought an end to just moments earlier. Frankie seemed almost sorry for having been the man to do it.

For a professional fighter, Frankie Edgar doesn’t appear to have a mean bone in his body, which is what makes this candid photo of Edgar and Penn embracing backstage following the TUF 19 Finale all the more telling. Simply put, Edgar’s face reads like a road map of heartache here. Sorrow, guilt, empathy, and respect — all captured in one perfectly timed photo.

We here at CagePotato.com aren’t the types to say “We told you so,” which is convenient, because we couldn’t even gather enough interest in BJ Penn vs. Frankie Edgar III to mock it beforehand. The fight ended predictably; Penn continued to be no match for Edgar, and “The Prodigy” hinted at yet another retirement from MMA after it was over. Given the trilogy’s one-sided nature and predictable ending, we’re tempted to call it the most pointless trilogy in our sport’s history. But doing so would do the following trilogies a grave injustice:

Bryan Robinson vs. Andrew Reinard

A quick glance at the record of every ironman in MMA will reveal multiple victories over fighters who can best be described as “victims” and “warm bodies.” Reinard is Exhibit A: You can watch his entire three-fight career in only forty-eight seconds.
[Author Note: Robinson vs. Reinard is a stand-in for every pointless trilogy that other MMA ironmen have been involved in. Coincidentally, Robinson himself accounts for seven (?!?) of Travis Fulton's career victories.]

The TUF 19 Finale headlined by BJ Penn vs. Frankie Edgar is now officially a candidate for saddest card of all time–not because of the entertainment value of the card, but because of what happened in the main event.

BJ Penn looked…old. He looked old, slow, and generally terrible. He came out with this bizarre, vertical stance reminiscent of a pose a non-fight fan would do if they were parodying a boxer. It looked really strange. Nor did it suit Penn’s style. His footwork couldn’t keep up with Edgar, nor could his hands. Edgar tagged Penn at will, and even managed to take the Hawaiian down at will. This was doubly depressing because Penn’s takedown defense used to be legendary. Eventually, Edgar landed a prolonged flurry of ground and pound in the third frame, prompting a stoppage.

“I have a question for both of you,” asks Dana White to BJ Penn and Frankie Edgar just moments before the three begin deliberating semifinal matchups on last night’s episode of TUF 19, “Is this the season of guys who just don’t want it?”

“F*cking exactly,” Penn quickly chimes in, while Edgar opts to remain silent. I swear, that Edgar fellow is too nice for his own good and it’s going to get him hurt one day.

But perhaps more interesting than White’s assertion of this season’s cast — who combined have finished just one fight inside the distance since entering the house — is how it applies to the excruciatingly dull season that TUF 19 has become, and truly, The Ultimate Fighter program as a whole.

I know, I know, we here at CagePotato hate everything MMA, UFC, and especially, T-U-F. We’ve had it out for The Ultimate Fighter from the get-go — the “get-go” being somewhere around season 15. We’re just h8ers who can’t appreci8 TUF because we’re all overw8 noobs who can’t get d8s, don’t trane UFC, etc. And that’s fine, but even the biggest TUF apologist would find it hard to declare that this season has been memorable in any way whatsoever (although I’m sure a few of you will try in the comments section). The fights have sucked, Penn and Edgar have been non-factors at best, and the fights have sucked. Did I mention the fights have sucked? Because they have.